Making the switch to Linux

YES, We have shifted all our servers i.e. Mail, Proxy, Chat (For inter-project communication), Databases (running oracle) to Red HAT Linux 7.2. There are a lot of advantages
1. Downtime is almost nil we have shut off the server two times in that last 12 months for preventive maintenance, no crashes whatsoever!!!
2. A great savings on licenses a single server license costs about 100-200 US dollars (Pricing in India).3. Takes a lot of user load compared to ther OS's
Hoever intially we did needa lot of help in setting the whole thing up. All this ofcourse is available on the web.

We are now in the process of converting our workstations to Linux. Will share my experiences as we go along.

As a solution provider we have helped a few small businesses with converting from Windows to Linux. As was mentioned before you will see an enormous difference in the cost of licensing as well as support. We used to make a pretty penny on support calls but when one of my engineers mentioned they could save on support by switching they immediately wanted more information.

Basically, most everything you could want is freely available off the internet. This includes office-like applications most of which will work directly with existing office files.

Another great reason to switch is to cut down on hardware costs. Linux does not require the enormous overhead that Microsoft does. The only area that I would recommend not going light on would be memory. Linux loves memory, the more the merrier.

Hope this helps.